The following post was inspired by Rand at SEOmoz
A little background on me. I started in the SEO space about 8 years ago, after spending 6 years of building sites without SEO in mind. Over the years the responsibility of the SEO (Me) has changed, not in a bad way, but more as a response to the evolution of the online space as a whole. It has gone from basic onsite factors such as crawlability and keyword focus, to a more holistic approach that adds a focus on user experience, content strategy, and community into the mix of what SEO is all about.
So What is SEO
SEO is tactical planning of a website’s architecture and overall structure to allow internal metrics to flow properly, planning content that is valuable and satisfies the users and search engines intent, creating a positive user experience through design and site flow that fosters social sharing and link acquisition.
SEO is a business strategy; a strategy that is about publishing, brand building, marketing, and traffic acquisition. Learn more about what SEO is and what it is not.
What Was SEO In 1999-2003
- Ensure Google Could Crawl the Website
- The Website Contained Readable/Spiderable Content
- The Website Had a Well Designed Site Architecture That Allowed Proper Link Juice Flow
- Focus on Limiting Duplicate Content
- Creating HTML Sitemaps
- Basic Keyword Research
- On-page Keyword Targeting
- Optimizing On-Site Anchor Text
- Blogger Outreach
- Directory Link Building
- Reaching Out To Site Owners For Links
- Guestbook and Forum Signature Links
- Optimizing For Google Images
What was SEO In 2004-2008
- XML Sitemaps Came Into the Role based on Search Engines Uniting on a Sitemap Protocol
- Creating More In-Depth Content, and Limiting Thin Content
- Rel Canonical Tag Came Into Play
- NoFollow Tag Usage
- Competitive Keyword Analysis Such As Keyword Difficulty
- Alt Text Optimization
- Minimizing On-page Keyword Manipulation
- Social Media Outreach Programs To Gain Links
- PR Tactics
- Content Syndication For Links
- Badges and Widget Creation Tactics
- Guest Blogging
- Article Marketing
- Optimizing Google Maps
- Optimizing Video
- Optimizing for Shopping Tools
- Optimizing for News Feeds Such As Google News
Over the last couples years Google has made some great strides with their algorithm that effectively made SEO a more holistic marketing channel. SEOs could not just focus on the basics anymore and the metrics focused around onsite quality and what others where saying about your content and experience socially as well as with links.
What is SEO In 2011 and Beyond
- Site Acessibility
- Content Strategy and Creation
- Link Building
- Community Participation
- Search Vertical Optimization
- Social Media Marketing
- Reputation Management
- Keyword Research and Optimizing Keyword Targeting
- Content Creation
- Optimizing Search Protocols
- Community Management
- Community Building
- Local SEO and Google Maps Optimization
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